Visit Milwaukee Blog

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, The Daily Beast shows Milwaukee some serious affection, including it among its 50 Best Cities for Love. This popular website published by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, “ranks the cities where love’s promise is most profound, from abundant singles to happy couples to romantic ambience.”

Air kisses, Tina!

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, traveled to Italy, India and Indonesia to find a soulmate. Maybe a passport to romance was closer to home than she imagined. Gilbert, in town for a recent book signing, says of Milwaukee "It's on my Top Five of the big-shocker cities that if you're not from around there you have no idea how cool they are. The place is fantastic. I could totally see living there. The architecture. The magnitude of these deep industrial buildings being repurposed and the lake. I'm a big fan."

Thanks, Elizabeth! And I could totally see Milwaukee as the setting for your next New York Times bestseller! Call me for a city tour. I’ve got connections.

I’m not surprised these ladies are crushin’ on my home town. Think about it. It’s actually got all the qualities people lie about so they can score a date in the first place.

We’re naturally beautiful. Those photos on the web site? Those are really Milwaukee. We’re not putting up pics of some other city just to get you to come here and then you find yourself standing in the middle of a brownfield. We’ve got a Great Lake for a backyard! And a river running right through the middle of downtown! Travel & Leisure loves our RiverWalk so much they ranked it third among their Top Ten Coolest River Walks in the U.S.

We’re easy – in a good way. Forbes Magazine named us second on the list of America’s Most Relaxed Cities. We beat out other large metros because of a healthy balance between work and life. Let’s be honest. This is important. Who wants to hang with someone who’s uptight all the time?

We’re entertaining. Men’s Health named Milwaukee number four on its “10 Best Places to Party in the U.S.” list - right after Las Vegas, New York City and Miami. It makes perfect sense. We gave the world its largest music festival, Summerfest, and an impressive lineup of the nation’s biggest ethnic fests. And we practically invented beer.

I have absolutely no proof to back up that last statement. Although travel web site TripAdvisor ranked Lakefront Brewery number four in the nation on its list of Top Brewery Tours. That’s gotta count for something.

We’re textured – a quick stroll through downtown reveals a place with a lot of personality. I think the New York Times pretty much nailed it. “The area still appreciates its beer and bratwurst: delis carry a mind-boggling variety of sausage, and bars are known to have 50-plus brands of brew. But Milwaukee also has 95 miles of bike lanes, lush parks lacing the shores of Lake Michigan and a revitalized riverfront where sophisticated shops coexist within sight of the city’s industrial past.”

We’re real, which means we don’t put on airs. We know when to mind our p’s and q’s, and when to loosen up a button or three. That’s why we’re home to what web site Virtualtourist calls the Sexiest Building in the World, the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Quadracci Pavilion. Check out this love letter: “it’s somewhere between a glorious yacht, a graceful dove and a modern dancer.” It even rocked the world of Hollywood director Michael Bay, earning a starring role in his next Transformers movie. That’s big-time street cred.

Naturally beautiful, easy, entertaining, textured and real. Now that sounds like the perfect match –the kind of place you could easily grow to love and that you can’t wait to share with all the people you care about.

The Green Bay Packers are world champions and the Lombardi Trophy is coming home. All is right with the world.

Remember in January when I blogged about the local Polar Bear Plunge into Lake Michigan? Back when Super Bowl dreams were little more than crazy talk around a can of Miller Lite and a handful of crushed tortilla chips?

Even then Milwaukeeans knew the importance of showing your true colors. How else do you explain people jumping into freezing water in green and gold string bikinis and Speedos smaller than the average cocktail napkin? That’s pure fan loyalty at its overzealous best.

We never wavered in our commitment. We wore cheeseheads, painted our faces and invested in enough spirit wear to clothe half the small towns in Wisconsin. You could say we took the ball and ran with it.

The Milwaukee Art Museum backed the Pack. It bet Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art the temporary loan of a major artwork based on the outcome of the game. Renoir’s Bathers with Crab is going to look great in the MAM galleries!

The Florentine Opera got in the game by wagering the Pittsburgh Opera it could get more likes on Facebook than they could – loser poses for a group photo wearing the opposing team’s gear. Milwaukee heard the battle aria and started clicking. I can’t wait to see how Pittsburgh rocks a cheesehead...

Team spirit was off the charts on the ice, too. The Milwaukee Admiralspainted their face-off circles green and gold. Eckstein Hall, the home of Marquette University Law School, decked the building out in green and gold lighting that could be seen from the freeway!

There’s no question we back the Pack with the best of them – now let’s get ‘em back. Green Bay, how about showing Milwaukee a little love like in the old days? It’s been way too long since the Green Bay Packers played here. The last regular season home game in Milwaukee’s old County Stadium took place in December 1994 against the Atlanta Falcons. The Packers won 20 – 17.

I know what you’re thinking - Miller Park was built for baseball and there may be issues. But even if the end zones are in the bleachers, we’ll work it out. Our stadium has the only fan-shaped, retractable roof in North America and the Packers are a good dome team. It’s a start. And we can crank that roof open in less than ten minutes flat so you don’t have to worry about the punters kicking too high like in Dallas.

Milwaukee has plenty of Green Bay connections to make the team feel at home. Green Bay’s Hinterland Brewery has a restaurant in the Historic Third Ward. The Pfister Hotelhas ties – legend has it that Vince Lombardi borrowed a concierge outfit and hung out near the elevators to nab players staying out past curfew. Speaking of Vince, I bet he ate at Mader’s restaurant. Why? It’s voted the most famous German restaurant in North America. It’s got a Hall of Fame filled with pictures of the famous people they have served. Something tells me he was a Sauerbraten kind of guy.

Lambeau Leap? Got it covered. If the Milwaukee Brewersagree to loan out the Klement’sRacing Sausages and we get some of the engineering students from Milwaukee School of Engineeringon board, we can easily figure out how to launch those mascots right over the goal posts. We’ve got the aerodynamic nature of the costume on our side.

If all that’s not convincing enough, how about letting the words of the legend himself do the talking?

We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.Vince Lombardi

VISIT Milwaukee is an award-winning convention & visitors bureau providing information on premier events, hotel accommodations, transportation, restaurants and fun things to do in Milwaukee, Wisconsin! Experience the warm hospitality of Milwaukee's local businesses. We hope to see you soon!